Things to draw when the page stays blank

If you have ten minutes

Pick a face. The smiling cat face, the bunny face and the smiling pumpkin are each a circle, two or three features and a mouth, done before the pencil needs sharpening. The wrapped present is even quicker: a box, a ribbon, a bow, and it makes a gift tag on its own.

If you have an afternoon

Take something with a scene around it. The tortoise and the hare gives you two characters and a story to finish on the same sheet. The cat in a boba cup and the reindeer with baubles have enough small parts to keep the hand busy without any of them being hard. And the halloween castle or the christmas wreath are the ones to open when you want a drawing that takes the whole afternoon and looks like it did.

If it is for someone

A drawing made for a person needs a subject that reads as a gift. The puppy with a balloon works for a birthday, the christmas candle and the christmas star for a card in december, the unicorn and rainbow for a child who has a favorite color and wants to use all of it. Print the model, color it, fold it: the card is done.

If you want to get better

Draw the same subject twice at two levels. Start with the sitting bunny, then try the realistic rabbit; the cat with a bow, then the striped cat; the walking unicorn, then the realistic unicorn. The second one is harder for a reason you can see — proportions, fur, the eye — and having drawn the first tells you exactly where.